Sad Case of the Honest Boy
by The Light's Refrain
Summary: ONESHOT Calem had always eagerly awaited the future...until it actually came.


_Hey there! This is a drabble from a drabble tag...that got rather long XD. Hope you enjoy! Prompts were Distant Utopia, Shattered Life, and One Heart._

**_Disclaimer: If I owned even one restaurant in Kalos, much less the Pokemon franchise..._**

Sad Case of the Honest Boy

"_One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way." - Vincent Van Gogh_

Calem loved his life. His parents were famous veteran Trainers, so naturally he was the kid who was the best and most knowledgeable about Pokemon. His parents had him practice with their own well-trained Pokemon, which most kids could only dream of at his age at the time. So he had lots of friends, who he would both show off to and give advice to. Over time, his closest friends ended up being Shauna, who was terribly shy at first, Tierno, who was first quiet and withdrawn, and Trevor, who at the beginning was too absorbed in his own studious world to interact much with others. But they were all drawn to his calm but bright personality, and over time he helped them out of their shells and become the best they could be.

They loved to talk about the future, the distant utopia on the horizon. They would all get their Pokemon at the same time. They would all go on a journey, not always traveling side-by-side, but always keeping in touch. They would beat up bad guys. They would become heroes. None of them had any doubt about this, especially Calem. He couldn't wait for that day to come, when he would finally be an official Trainer.

Time passed so slowly in his quiet little town. The last month before his birthday, the group's agreed starting date, seemed the slowest of all, like waiting for an Eevee egg to hatch. He constantly daydreamed about what his future starting Pokemon would be like, and what all the following Pokemon would be like. What his friends and their Pokemon would be like. What _he_ would be like, as a Trainer.

Though it seemed like it might never happen, his birthday finally came. Along with a new girl.

Her name was Serena. She and her mom had been busy moving in the past couple of days, but he was so excited over his oh-so-close future that he hadn't paid much attention. He felt bad about that: he was always the person to first greet a newcomer and help them out. So he invited her to join his little group, and she did so gladly.

She was a cheerful girl, not particularly ambitious or thoughtful, but nice all the same. She was kind of cute too, he had to admit. Everyone else liked her too, which was a relief. He didn't want to start unnecessary squabbling by including the newcomer into their Trainer circle at the last minute.

And so their journeys began, each person with their very own Pokemon by their side. This was nothing like ordering around his parent's Pokemon, who were merely obeying him to amuse his parents. His Pokemon saw him and him only as master, and as his best friend. It was wondrous, wandering through the grasses and forests and seeing his Pokemon grow ever stronger for his sake. Sometimes Calem could hardly believe it was all real. They even got to fight bad guys, those self-absorbed goons of Team Flare. It was everything he ever wanted.

Besides being the strongest, of course. He didn't just want to be good. He wanted to be great, the best of the best. He owed his parents that much. Clearly they were eager to see the day when he conquered the Elite Four, which his parents did, and then conquer the Champion, which his parents were never able to do. He wanted to be different, to stand above the crowd and be admired for his strength and the great effort it took to get there.

Only, he couldn't beat her. Serena. The newcomer. The girl who only wanted to have fun, much like Shauna. Yet her Pokemon were incredibly powerful, even though she said she never spent a great amount of time training them. Most of their training came from being lost and exploring, apparently. Calem had to wonder about that. He had spent a great deal of time meticulously training his own team...

And that wasn't the only thing he was losing at. His friends loved to be with her, thanks to her carefree and bubbly personality. In fact, they seemed to spend more time with her than they did with him. One time, Shauna asked if he wanted to check out a rumored scary house. He was in the middle of training, so he told her he couldn't go right now. He worked quickly to finish that training, and called Shauna back. She said that they had already gone with Serena.

He almost yelled at her. Calem never wanted to yell at people, not calm, amiable Calem. But he didn't, though he let Shauna know that he had wanted to come eventually. She told him that it really wasn't that scary, and not to worry about it. The call ended.

She didn't get it. Maybe he _should_ have yelled at her.

Team Flare's previously irritating antics quickly got out of hand. Those idiots nearly ended the world, for Arceus's sake. They all worked together to stop them, and succeeded. They were heroes. But it was Serena, whose outfit and hairstyle had changed once again, who was just as carefree (careless) as ever, who lead the way, beat the main bad guy, and, most ridiculously of all, got to catch a legendary. A _legendary_! With _that_ girl! It was absurd!

He thought getting the hero title would earn him more respect, make him stand out a little. But he and his friends were swiftly overshadowed by Serena, the main hero, who soon cleared out the Pokemon League in one shot and became Champion on her very first try. While he was still struggling to become stronger, as his parents constantly called to check on his progress, how he couldn't even make it through Victory Road. But he was trying. He was trying trying _trying_ every day! While that girl barely tries at all and yet even now is lazily laying at the top, more concerned about fashion and buying as many clothes as possible than Pokemon battles...He never saw her wear the same outfit twice.

His friends weren't mad about it. They loved her: being with her, talking with her, trading with her, everything. He barely heard from them anymore. They weren't stupid enough to challenge her to a Pokemon battle. He supposed he was, though, because he challenged her to a battle almost every single day. He was known in that place, where the strongest of all Trainers resided, as "That moron who challenges the Champion all the time". They don't even bother to remember his name. He's just another face in the crowd. He's just one heart among thousands, among millions.

"I'll think about what you did well and use this loss to fuel my desire to improve," Calem said with a shake of his head, after he lost to her once again. He paused. "When we first set off on our journey, I thought it was really important how different I was from everyone else." He paused again, and some shadows seemed to cross his face. In a moment it flickered away, unseen, and was hastily replaced by a sheepish smile. "But that doesn't really matter, does it? Of course I'm different from others. There's only one me, right?"

Serena nodded as she ran off, no doubt to challenge one of the local battle areas. Calem stayed where he was, and thought about how his dreams were broken so easily by someone else that was more destined than him. Quietly his mind drifted back to the distant utopia of his past, back when he had everything, before his was a Trainer.

_Thank you Serena_, he thought bitterly. _For shattering my life._

_IIIIII_

_I always felt really bad for Calem, especially since I was way overleveled thanks to 's upgrade XD. _


End file.
